Popular Folklore in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, talks of a "Mothman", a tall man-like creature with wings that haunts the town. Recently some photographs rekindled interest in this old story:
http://wchstv.com/news/local/man-ph...resembles-legendary-mothman-of-point-pleasant
The first image is interesting, but it's a little hard to imagine it as a person, the "legs" don't really look like legs. Other people like Sharon Hill of Doubtful News have suggested it's something like a bird of prey, possibly an owl, carrying away a snake. That's certainly quite plausible, but I'd liek to suggest another possibility, a beetle.
The beetle possibility requires we flip out thinking about which way the creature is flying, it also requires that the photographer has flipped his thinking, as clearly the images are portrayed as something flying from right to left.
What made me think of beetle were the legs, which immediately reminded me of the antenna of a beetle that has nearly flown into my head a few times in evening here in California, the California Root Borer, prionus californicus. The antenna are similar sized relative to the body, and are often curved in a similar manner. This photo is of one that dive-bombed me, then sat stunned on the ground for a while to let me take photos
However if it is a beetle, it's probably not this one, as the "wings" (the wing covers) are too far back on the "mothman". I do think the front end is a match, elongated a bit.
What's interesting here is the difficulty of judging scale. In the first photo we see some trees in the background, but it really could be any size. In the other photos it seems like it's closer to a tree, and almost seems similar sized to a leaf. Certainly does not seem to be man sized.
I think if I were to rank the possible explanations using Occam's Razor I'd have to put them roughly in this order:
Update: A new possibility is an owl with tethers. Tethers are very light and would allow the owl to fly normally with legs behind.
http://wchstv.com/news/local/man-ph...resembles-legendary-mothman-of-point-pleasant
The first image is interesting, but it's a little hard to imagine it as a person, the "legs" don't really look like legs. Other people like Sharon Hill of Doubtful News have suggested it's something like a bird of prey, possibly an owl, carrying away a snake. That's certainly quite plausible, but I'd liek to suggest another possibility, a beetle.
The beetle possibility requires we flip out thinking about which way the creature is flying, it also requires that the photographer has flipped his thinking, as clearly the images are portrayed as something flying from right to left.
What made me think of beetle were the legs, which immediately reminded me of the antenna of a beetle that has nearly flown into my head a few times in evening here in California, the California Root Borer, prionus californicus. The antenna are similar sized relative to the body, and are often curved in a similar manner. This photo is of one that dive-bombed me, then sat stunned on the ground for a while to let me take photos
However if it is a beetle, it's probably not this one, as the "wings" (the wing covers) are too far back on the "mothman". I do think the front end is a match, elongated a bit.
What's interesting here is the difficulty of judging scale. In the first photo we see some trees in the background, but it really could be any size. In the other photos it seems like it's closer to a tree, and almost seems similar sized to a leaf. Certainly does not seem to be man sized.
I think if I were to rank the possible explanations using Occam's Razor I'd have to put them roughly in this order:
- Bird carrying something in it's talons, like a snake or frog flying left
- Bird with tethers on it's legs flying left
- Beetle flying right
- Bird flying right with something curved in it's beak
- Some other natural flying creature, possibly carrying something
- A hoax
- Something new to science but natural
- Aliens
- A paranormal being
Update: A new possibility is an owl with tethers. Tethers are very light and would allow the owl to fly normally with legs behind.
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